"Embarrassing as a player": Fans vent their anger on FC Schalke 04

On the final matchday of the second division season, Schalke experienced an astonishing escalation. In their defeat against SV Elversberg, who had transformed from a village club into a top team, Schalke's fans taunted their own players.

Anyone who goes to Schalke isn't allowed to come by car. Schalke is a feeling, Schalke is the deepest part of the Ruhr area, Schalke is tram 302 from the main station to the arena. Always heading north. Music theater, Schalker Meile, Ernst-Kuzorra-Platz, and eventually the stadium. Over railway lines, over the canal. Past the Glückaufkampfbahn (stadium), blue-and-white pubs, and construction signs proclaiming the "elimination of problem properties."

Right there in the 302nd floor, hours before the final match of the completely botched 2024/2025 season against SV Elversberg, three boys, no more than 20, are sitting together. They're staring out the window and talking the way people talk when they talk, so as not to remain silent. Then their heads would hurt. Schalke's match against Elversberg on this 34th matchday of the 2024/2025 season will be a resounding loss. The visitors will win 2-1 (1-0) and qualify for the relegation play-offs to the first Bundesliga. They will face 1. FC Heidenheim over two matches for Bundesliga membership.

Karaman's voice almost breaks

When the Elversberg players discuss their success and the upcoming biggest games in the club's history after the game in the depths of the Schalke Arena, they will shake hands with exactly two journalists. A few meters away, a crowd has formed around the Royal Blues' captain, Kenan Karaman. He's got a lot to do. "When the fans turn against the team in our own stadium, it hurts. Everyone can believe me," the 31-year-old will say, his eyes red. "That was tough today. We have to get through it. It has to make us stronger." Karaman's voice will stumble. Not even he will believe what he just said.

The fans will have loudly sung "We want to go home" and repeatedly waved around the stadium to chants of "Oh, how beautiful it is." In between, they will have sung praises to Schalke 04 as "German champions" and celebrated their dominance in the Ruhr area. They will experience hallucinations of helplessness. Because everything, absolutely everything, is gone, except their love for FC Schalke 04. Frustration will turn into malice, heaped upon a team that will be heckled with the first whistles during the obligatory farewells before the game.

"We won't play in the cup if we finish 15th"

But the three lads on the verge of sanity in the 302 don't know all of this yet. They can't know it yet. Because it lies in their future. Nor do they know that before Karaman's statements, Pierre-Michel Lasogga will be substituted on. The former Hamburg player will be making his first appearance in German professional football in almost six years. He will be substituted on primarily to pacify the stadium.

Because what will happen is hard to imagine, even with the worst hangover in history, they simply look back at what has already happened. Something always happens that can be talked about. They comment on the world and how it rushes through their tired brains. It got late again yesterday in Castrop-Rauxel. All kinds of substances, banging on the walls during the day, eating something later. But today is Schalke. It doesn't matter what time it was yesterday.

What was said yesterday is not unimportant. "Dude, Mattis said we won't play in the cup if we finish 15th," says one of them, as the 302 chugs up Kurt-Schumacher-Allee. "Mattis is stupid! Of course we're playing in the cup, but maybe against Dortmund." Facts first, even in the 302 with a residual level. The fight against 15th place in the table is the final decision for Schalke this season. Will they be classified as amateurs in next year's DFB Cup, or will they make it to the professional camp?

The breaking point is 14th place in the table. From there, you're in the professional cup, below that is the amateur cup. It'll all work out in the end. Because relegated SSV Ulm scored a late goal against Preußen Münster. "I don't see the club down there at all. Anything from tenth place downwards isn't a good season for me. We've been lucky, as it turns out. That wouldn't have been good for our public image," Karaman will say.

The day that broke all boundaries

Anyone who goes to Schalke experiences the power of football. They realize what it can trigger in people. They can empathize with how deeply football burns into people's souls with all its power. How it makes them despair and later laugh at themselves and their despair. In the north of Gelsenkirchen, football no longer knows a league or successes. It's simply there. That's enough for people.

At least until they're fed up. Then they show it to their club. That happens a lot at Schalke. Then things hiss out of every crack, then the threat of an explosion, and when things get particularly bad, the ultras grab the players and explain the world to them, then the stadium either whistles or falls silent. But the form in which the anger crept into the arena in the game against Elversberg was unprecedented. It was a reckoning like no other.

"Board and Executive Board: Another relegation battle in Bundesliga 2 - The result of your hard work," the fans proclaimed before the game on a banner hanging above the North Curve. "Historically worst finish - Have a nice summer break, you losers," was the cry down in the North Curve towards the end of the game. In between lay this damned terrible Sunday for FC Schalke 04. One that continued to escalate and pushed the boundaries of perception.

At least nobody fell from the upper tier

Things really got going in the 20th minute when defender Taylan Bulut attempted a long-range shot toward the Elversberg penalty area. The ball barely reached the penalty area and instead flew right around the Royal Blues' ears. The Elversberg team from Saarland combined through midfield, Fisnik Asllani passed to Lukas Petkov, who shot from over 20 meters, hardly threatening, but Justin Heekeren once again looked shaky in the Schalke goal. 1-0 to the visitors. The disintegration began.

After just over half an hour, Schalke were only hitting the ball forward long distances. Bulut sometimes hit it into touch, Adrian Gantenbein occasionally handed it directly to the opponents. The North Curve began its hallucinations. The fans had turned away from the pitch, singing about the number one in the Ruhr area. They sang about how they stood there with their backs to the pitch and didn't want to look anymore. At some point during these minutes, they missed Ron Schallenberg clearing a situation by firing the ball into goalkeeper Heekeren's face from close range. It didn't even seem intentional, but rather a necessity arising from the escalating situation.

But hardly anyone saw it anyway. Even on the few opportunities Schalke had, the fans didn't turn around. They escalated into "Shitty BVB" chants and continued to jump around defiantly with their backs to the pitch, making you feel quite anxious for the fans in the first rows of the upper tier of the stadium. This concern proved unfounded.

Lasogga's snorting comeback

Because the fans were once again looking forward to the game with renewed courage after the break, singing about championships and cup wins, they saw one of them take aim in front of the North Curve in the 47th minute. It was one of those goals that makes teammates turn away in celebration before the scorer touches the ball. A Schalke player had scored. There was just one problem: Maurice Neubauer hasn't played for Schalke for a long time, but currently plays for Elversberg. So, 2-0.

The former Schalke player later said: "Dad instilled in me early on that I would become a Schalke fan," adding: "It's a shame that the club is doing a bit worse. The fans are still something special here. On the field, it's not all that noticeable. You just notice a certain amount of noise. Schalke 04 will bounce back."

First, the roar continued to fall to the ground. The spectators belted out the classics. They sang "Oh, how beautiful it is," and the entire stadium joined in at a blazing volume. Meanwhile, the wave raced through the arena again and again. Once, twice, three times, four times, five times. Interim coach Jakob Fimpel was fed up. He was able to stop this worst phase of humiliation with a trick. He ordered Lasogga to the sidelines. He had previously played for Fimpel in the U23s and was now supposed to provide a bit of a distraction. The substitution of the soon-to-be-sniffling striker in the 70th minute definitively gave the game the feel of a psychedelic dream. It was all surreal, no longer a football match.

Youri Mulder is simply happy: Crash avoided

In one of his first moves, the 33-year-old cleared SVE defender Lukas Pinckert, jumped up, and—while his opponent was still on the ground—fired on the crowd. The crowd was enthusiastic. Schalke hurled every ball at Lasogga. He slammed his body into everything that moved, and the crowd roared and forgot. For a few seconds, then a fall to 15th place threatened—because Münster took the lead in Ulm and Fürth was leading against HSV—and a banner appeared in the north stand announcing the historically poor season. At least substitute Yassin Ben Balla scored, Ulm equalized, and calmed the fans even further. When this miserable season was finally over, the fans chased the team into the catacombs with a loud chorus of whistles.

"We want to get out of this league," said sporting director Youri Mulder there. "But out of the top. Because that was also the danger. That happens to big clubs too, that they slip through the ranks. Fortunately, that didn't happen." What had happened in the stands at one point was a message. "If you don't understand when you're booed by 60,000 people when you walk off the pitch. If you don't understand that, I don't know," explained the Eurofighter, comparing it to all the other events this season: "It hasn't been as wild as it was today."

"He can only run around the arena ring"

Anyone who goes to Schalke isn't allowed to come by car. Schalke is about feeling, Schalke is the deepest of the Ruhr area, Schalke is tram number 302 from the arena to the main station. After the 1-2 defeat on the last matchday, the fans sit there and talk about what happened. At Schalke and elsewhere. One shows a picture of Mark Uth. The former Schalke player is lifting the trophy after Cologne's championship win. The person showing the picture can't contain himself. "He can't do anything," he complains. "It was just his last game, and he even scored a goal," another adds. "He can't do anything," the reply booms. "All he can do is run, and he can do it around the Arena Ring." That's exactly what the former national player had to do on the day FC Schalke 04 was relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time.

But the fans didn't even have anger for the current generation of players. On this Sunday in May, their merciless mockery brought captain Karaman to tears. "This is pure disappointment. It gets under your skin. It's embarrassing as a player when your own fans turn against your team. We'll probably carry this pain with us into the coming weeks." When they're over, it's completely unclear who will still be there after this historically bad season. But one thing is already clear: The fans will be back in the 302. No matter how late it was the night before. Because the best hangover of all is still Schalke.